Amoeba also needs a face! (Even if its an Operating System)

You see, in recent years there have been some strange things happening in the Personal / Portable Computer world. You see, if we try to think about the beginning of all known menu lists. Like for example Index of the Book. Cars have a Dashboard. Even people have face. So you at least know if person is paying attention when you are speaking. If you go even further and look at the most advanced Book; which is even called Book of Books. Im talking about the Bible. You see it also has Index and Page numbering. But it also has verses numbering. So experienced users dont even look at the Index. Some advanced Bibles have chapters marked on the edges of the pages. So this are sort of like shortcuts. So you dont even have to look at Index. You just find a Chapter by the mark and then look for the needed verse in this chapter. But when you are new. And dont know/are still not familiar with chapter marks. And/or not familiar with the verses numbering. Of course you are going to use Index. And page numbers. So an Operating System Graphical User Interface without Index. If like Quasimodo. Imagine searching something in a book without Index. You need to go though whole book to get any idea what is in there at all. This is what 'Metro' looks like. Like a book without index. Overwhelming at least.

 
Classic Shell example

But of course there is big difference between dashboard and the hood. Bible also has an explanatory dictionary at the end. But you mostly look at it only if you need really something specific. Ofc if you are just beginning you tend to take the look at it somewhat more often then later.
But you know that the most special distinctive major difference is between an old fashioned Book and the Computer. Computer has search feature. Maybe the most advanced feature that makes computers extraordinary. Compared to books. You can have almost instant answer for any question / topic you will input. Useful not only in the context of one book but also in context of maybe whole library of books.
So this so called 'Start Menu' or so called 'Homerun' or the HomerunKicker that didnt got approved for Mageia 5 https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Feature:HomerunKickerAsDefaultApplicationLauncherInKDE

 
HomerunKicker example

To me it looks like the old hat bearded Mandrake people behind it are stuck in the KDE3 days. Yes i feel the Plasma 5 coming in the way that i dont like. (Remains to be seen). And to be honest i like the HomerunKicker which Netrunner 14 uses so much more than default modern KDE Homerun. Altrough Suse 13 is gorgeous. As Debian7 KDE is also. And they have at least have this some sort of  'Start menu'/'Homerun' which Windows 8 really lacks. Where you have and Menu AND search.
So when there is a need for it there will be third party apps made like the 'Classic Shell' and/or HomerunKicker. They just work.
Ofc there is also some other thing like Yast. Which is more like whats under the hood of a car or the explanatory dictionary at the end of the Bible. Then the 'Start menu' which is like a Dachboard and/or Index of a book.

Here a little bit of history:
in the 70's there was Dennis who made common sense of programming creating a sane language,
in the 80's there was Richard who used the language to make a compiler,
in the 90's there was Linux who used compiler to make a kernel,
in the 2000's there was Mark (or should i day Ian?) who used the kernel distribution to make a usable OS,
now in the 2010's there is now Clement who takes all this work even further by making it more usable for total newcomers,
what will the future of the 2020's bring us? I would really like to see the Yast which got rewritten in Ruby, being ported to Debian and further. :)

p.s. This toughs i had a view days ago. Look here what i found recently. Someone else also writing some stuff on this topic:
http://netrunner-mag.com/thoughts-on-main-menus/